The Government has won the elections in both Germany & Afghanistan and More.

international | politics / elections | opinion/analysis Monday September 19, 2005 13:34 by ratzinger

Germans and Afghans had knife edge elections yesterday, exercising their rights as citizens of a constitution written under US direction.

the man in himself on the voter trail after the good government decided the EZLN ought punt the 2006 mexican generals.

the government won.
more Afghans died.
This is great news for the Germans
they're going to hang the parliament.

Obviously the question need to be asked-
Could it happen here?

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the above text to this point was published yesterday and rightly deleted for being "too short for a news story".
Now in a nutshell, that's what we know.
No News.
No Result.
Yet a quick look at the international news-stands this morning, shows that a "no news" story (the germans can't elect a government) has filled leaders, editorials, front pages, and kept proof readers busy through the night.

Schroeder's snap election came as a reaction to the No! vote in France on the EU constitution. For many germans the EU was the deciding issue, and for others it was unemployment, yet more it was the limit of what Schroeder's SDP might achieve as a "leftwing" party.

what did they decide?

I put it to the readers, that they proved that all their main parties have policies which attract the main body of voters, who are now very "centred" and thus they all have a mandate, and I suggest that the german people reacted on very subtle levels to the Ratzinger visit :-

Here are the main parties : (do note they didn't elect the nazis)
# Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (Alliance 90/The Greens): ecologist party http://www.gruene.de/index.htm
# Christlich-Demokratische Union (Christian-Democratic Union): conservative christian-democratic party http://www.cdu.de/
# Christlich Soziale Union in Bayern (Christian Social Union in Bavaria): regional conservative party http://www.csu.de/
# Freie Demokratische Partei (Free Democratic Party): liberal party http://wahlkampf.fdp.de/
# Partei des Demokratischen Sozialismus (Party of Democratic Socialism): far left party
http://sozialisten.de/sozialisten/aktuell/index.htm
# Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (Social Democratic Party of Germany): social-democratic party http://www.spd.de/servlet/PB/menu/-1/index.html

That means
the German election is an advanced democracy national game.
well done Germans.

Perhaps readers (especially those who live in Germany may comment)
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Afghanistan-

Afghanistan is a mess. We know its a mess.
Its the mess which grows the most opium in the world and has the most extra-state inteference of any the UN nations. Its elections were between no less than 17 warlords, and were campaigned for in no less than 12 langauges and 10 ethnic groups. In a state with one of the lowest levels of literacy in the world.

They inked their thumbs. This is more like an elementary democracy national game.
well done Afghans!

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Now elections happen all the time, in the first six months of this year alone, there were 33 parliamentary elections worldwide, thats because we all love the democracy game. From Moldova to the Cayman islands from the UK to Tajikstan from Iraq to Anguilla. Everyone is voting.

Its a process which honestly deserve less news space than war or disasters.

Because we know the results before hand, and at end all we do is heap unwarrented hope or sympathy on the short list of those who have "got a new job" or "lost a job".

Very well paid jobs. Career politician jobs.

Upcoming elections-

Palestine.
Israel.
Ireland.
Mexico.